New Laminate Flooring being installed ----- > Tips?

Pete Simmons

Member
Messages
546
Location
Melbourne, FL
New laminate flooring going over first floor cement slab. Had rug on it.

Flooring has the foam backing already on it. Harmonics-flooring.com

Yes I know it is cheap stuff on sale from Costco but that is what I am working with. No changing that. Normally $36 a box of 22 sq ft. On sale for a week more at $21 a box. Read many reviews on it. Most good, a few bad. We a a very light traffic place so we will see how it goes.

Limit of 200 boxes per customer. A few contractors there picking up 200 boxes.

Going to put 6 mil poly vapor barrier down then the flooring.

I think I have it under control but asking for any tips or tricks that might help or hazards that I might have missed.


What is a good/easy way to fasten the T molding to the cement floor?
 
Don't use a good saw blade on laminate, doesn't matter how good of a blade it is the top coating on the laminate just eats teeth. When I did our house I was averaging a blade every ~400' sq (varies a lot because longer runs == more blade/ft of floor).

Lay out your pattern staggering carefully to avoid repeats, this really helps it look less cheap (if you don't see the patterns they don't exist). The stuff we put down had a couple of pieces that had the "grain" (picture?) continue into the another piece. That effectively gave the appearance of a longer board which helped break up the pattern some as well.

For the T molding, you can probably use either concrete screws or just glue it down with construction adhesive (careful you only glue down the track).
 
For the few I've done, before laying around the door ways, I've taken a scrap piece of the flooring and used a saw like this to cut the jambs first. I think I bought mine at the borg. I'd just drill with a hammer drill and use plastic anchors to secure the t molding. Be sure to leave that 1/2" gap around the edges, the stuff really does expand/contract. Be sure to fill any dips that are greater than 3/8" deep or any severe dips, the boards will separate in time at those areas. I have an area in my kitchen that the floor joist has movement and needs sister-ed and bridged properly, about ever few months I have to beat those sections back together, planning to get that taken care of in the next month though.
 
I've not done a lot of laminate flooring (so take this with a grain of salt), but I've had good success using construction adhesive for the t-molding. I just made sure to have some solvent handy to clean up any squeeze-out.
 
I have put the cheap stuff down in 3 bedrooms, its holding up quite well after 4 years. Something you might consider is to put down high density Foam insulation over the concrete, I'm planning to do this in my basement to keep the feet warmer in winter. I dulled my WWII blade last time I put in one of these floors and had to have it sharpen. I now have a special laminate Freud blade for cutting it now. The other advice I can give is any area that is going to get a lot of traffic or jumping apply glue to the joint, otherwise it will pull apart and leave a gap. Then you have to figure out how to close it back up. Start on your wall with the most joints and work towards the other. Remember no room is square. Otherwise it goes down farily easy.
Dan
 
Do the glues like "Liquid Nails" hold onto a cement floor?

Yes Pete it does. Did you get the install kit with it? You might find that bar that comes in the kit to come in very handy. And yes they mean it when they say to rotate it into place. If you try and just slide straight into the other one it will break off the lock. And use the spacers if you didn't get the install kit rip your self one out of a 2x to lay along the starting wall.
 
First of all lay out your pattern staggering carefully to avoid repeats it will help you lot.
Then you have to figure out how to close it back up and that is it.
Something you might consider is to put down high density Foam insulation over the concrete,
 
Last edited:
Top